‘Stay away from New York City if you possibly can’ – An Anti-Tourist Guide to NYC in 1975

Travelers arriving at New York City’s airports in June 1975 were greeted with possibly the strangest object ever handed out at the portal to a great city: pamphlets with a hooded death’s head on the cover, warning them, “Until things change, stay away from New York City if you possibly can.”

Welcome to Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York (1975) was published by the Council for Public Safety—police, firefighters and other unions. New York City was in dire financial straits and Mayor Abraham Beame had proposed heavy cuts in municipal services.